I never considered that. There are certain shows we consider appointment TV, so it makes sense that podcasts would benefit from the same framing.
So if narrative podcasts are the maximal version of that, people are having to restart that process over and over of finding what’s good, catching up, not missing the discourse—that can be challenging.
Now, I do think there are ways for the medium to be able to respond and evolve to that challenge. But it does make sense why, at least in those regards, why narrative didn’t quite take off like we thought it would. Also, with the strikes across the entertainment industry in the last few years, companies are being a lot more cautious with what stories they tell and the investments they make. That also trips things up. A lot of really good stories either weren’t told or won’t get the chance to be told because of that.
This kinda unexpected-but-expected mutation happened where an audio medium went visual. It almost seems like to have a successful podcast today, you need a presence on YouTube as well. Is that true?
It is becoming a little bit more of the norm because clips and reels and TikTok have become a lot of the foundation of how we connect. And it’s not that crazy that those tools are now what we use to communicate about podcasting. You see Spotify making investments in that space. I know Sirius is also really starting to lean on video via their app. People recognized that audiences actually do want this option. I just hope that it doesn’t become a barrier to entry for people who want to launch a podcast, who really just want to talk and have meaningful conversations.
How does the industry better evolve?
The industry part of podcasting has to not be afraid to invest in innovation. You have to invest in the creators who want to innovate, who want to mix it up and do something different. And it doesn’t have to include AI to be innovative.
The economics of the industry, however, are continuing to figure itself out. You’ve seen a lot of different types of investments. We saw a wave of celebrity shows. Now there are fewer of those huge mega deals, but there is still a smattering of different types of things. There’s always going to be glut—or not glut, that has a negative connotation, but an overabundance of programming. So it’s about figuring out how the industry can create levers to showcase the broadest range of that, because that feeds into how those shows make money.
It’s about figuring out how to make sure new voices are being heard and lifted up so that we can get exposure to them. With discovery. With monetization. With distribution. There needs to be a little bit more work into how all those ecosystems play together.
How will AI impact the future of the industry or is it all hocus pocus?
From my vantage right now, AI has not taken over or become a huge foundation of the content we make here at Hartbeat. Don’t get it twisted, AI transcription has changed the game. It has made a lot of our lives a lot easier in terms of how we edit and supervise our content. Across the industry, the jury is very much still out on some of the larger advancements and how they will actually work together. In a medium that is really built on human connection and conversation, I still think it’s going to be tough to compete more materially with that.
